ClimateWire headlines — Wednesday, July 31, 2013 — 8:02 AM

SPOTLIGHT

Bob Ackley may be the only person who has driven up and down every single street -- 1,500 miles total -- in Washington, D.C. While Ackley enjoyed exploring the nation's capital, which he described as "beautiful," this was serious business. He was measuring leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is also the main component of natural gas. Measured in terms of warming the atmosphere, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

When a wildfire turns deadly, as happened last month outside the town of Yarnell, Ariz., it makes headlines. These events are as confounding as they are tragic, in part because they always involve elements of chance and accident. Yet fire itself is not the greatest danger faced by wildland firefighters. Heart attacks and strokes -- often brought on by heat stress and fatigue -- remain the leading cause of death in the fire service.